Wheatfield sets public hearing on budget that includes tax cut

WHEATFIELD – The Town Board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Town Hall on a proposed 2014 budget that reduces the tax levy by 4.83 percent.

The tax bill for a typical home in the town, which is assessed at $125,000, would fall by $32.04, to $489.30. That’s a 6.15 percent reduction.

Almost all of the property tax change comes from the abolition of the highway tax, which last year raised $190,342. The Highway Department is counting on an increase in sales tax revenue next year for its primary funding.

Councilman Gilbert Doucet said he asked Budget Officer Edward D. Mongold for figures about the change in town taxes in the past four years, including the projected 2014 figures.

The tax levy has been reduced 18.92 percent in the budgets from 2011 through 2014, Mongold said.